The wonderful website WowOwow has just added a photo essay on The Mount, in particular focusing on the gardens. They were designed by Mrs. Wharton herself, with help from her niece, Beatrix Farrand, née Jones. Beatrix Farrand became one of the United States's leading landscape designers and gardeners. She was the only woman to be made a charter member of the American Society of Landscape Architects. At The Mount, Mrs. Farrand designed the maple sugar allée pictured above which leads to the main house. She also designed the kitchen and cutting garden, but unfortunately this garden is no longer extant. There are some apple trees left from the Wharton's time here, but that is all. We hope in the future to resurrect the kitchen and cutting garden and do have Beatrix Farrand's drawings to which to refer.
Our own WoW--Wharton on Wednesdays--has finished for the season and we would like once again to thank the members of the Berkshire Theatre Festival who read for us this year. Our readers were Kate Maguire, Ariel Bock, Jonathan Epstein, Ralph Petillo, Tara Franklin, Gray Simons, David Adkins and Robert McFadyen. We have been so grateful for their help and their absolutely wonderful performances at our readings. We look forward to a long relationship with BTF and they may as well consider this written notice that we want them back next season! (Or maybe even sooner!)
